ALY HELYER
Name: Aly Helyer
Age: 57
Birthplace: North Yorkshire, UK
Home: London, UK
Discipline: Painting
The Builder, 2022, photo by Ollie Hammick
What’s usually the starting point of your practice, and when does your work feel complete?
I draw a lot, mostly at night. Drawing is my way of thinking, I don’t start with any ideas, there’s no plan, only that it will contain a figures. I just start composing, usually in a small sketchbook. I tend to start with an eye or a mouth which acts like an anchor.
When the painting says it is, when the characters are believable, that they could exist, that they have a presence and could answer back, then the work feels complete.
What are you obsessed with?
Relationships.
What are the interactions that you seek between your work and the viewer?
For the viewer to feel a connection and not to walk away.
What is your commitment, both artistically and personally?
There’s no separation between my life and art. I want to make the best work I can, I want to surprise and challenge myself.
Who are some of the artists that have been the biggest influence on you?
I look at everything, contemporary and old... and probably spend way too much time on social media, but it’s the Old Masters I keep going back to, Giotto, Piero, Pontormo. Giotto for his ability to convey what it is to be human, Piero for his oddness, stillness and killer compositions, and Pontormo for his use of distortion of form and intense color relationships.
Where is the beauty for you today?
My supper last night of poached eggs on toast, simple and beautiful.